O. Henry, the famous short-story writer, was dying. His nurse surmised that death was coming very soon, and so as was the custom in that day, she reached up to pull the shades down and leave the room dark. O. Henry opened his eyes as if he were aware of what was going on and he said to her, “Push up the shades. I don’t want to go home in the dark.”
Because of Jesus, no one has to go home in the dark. Jesus brought it all out in the light and he said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25). You don’t have to be afraid. There is no darkness out there. As David Redding said, “Death did something terrible to Jesus. But not everyone knows that Jesus did something wonderful to death. For Jesus not only endured death, Jesus conquered death. He defeated death. He came out of the grave alive.”